Baby Imma be your motivation

I am feeling completely unmotivated lately. Like throw in the towel, curl up in a ball, and watch DVR'd Anne of Green Gables all day unmotivated.

Anne wouldn't say, "Screw it, I'm just going to get fat, miss my deadlines, and take a nap."

I know what it is too, I'm completely stressed out. And while stress will make some people brew an extra strong pot of coffee and dive right in to their to-do list, it makes me totally shut down. And I mean shut down in the most literal sense, and usually it involves a good long nap. I sort of go into hibernation mode when I'm stressed out. If you're sleeping, you can't think about the blog posts that need written, the Tweets that need scheduled, the five 1000 word articles that need written, the people that need interviewed and those who will not answer your emails. (For the love of God, it takes five seconds to reply to an email people!)

So even though I'm writing this blog post as a way to procrastinate doing my real work, at least it's somewhat more productive than sleeping (wait . . . I just woke up from a nap). I'm hoping that I can give myself the kick in the butt that I need to get all my work done before I leave for the beach on Saturday. 

Whenever I get overwhelmed by everything that needs done, I write a to-do list. Most to-do list experts know that the correct way to tackle said list is to pick the most undesirable task first and do it first to get it out of the way. Usually, I choose the backward approach of getting all the easy stuff done so that it looks like I actually finished more stuff on the list. . . 

Today, I REALLY need to take my list seriously, so I need to publish it here. And for supreme accountability, I will follow this up with a post documenting all the things I got done. Here goes:

1. Do my regular daily work for my social media accounts

2. Call the guy that I've been avoiding calling for an interview (I hate phone calls!)

3. Finish magazine article that is due on Friday

4. Write one of the 450 wd articles that is due on Friday

5. Accounting

6. GO TO THE GYM.

7. Actually write the blog post that follows this up

8. Pick up the house

And to help me get started, here's some Kelly Rowland and Weezie

Pacific Coast Party!

I have a lot of stuff going on right now, and luckily it's all good stuff!

Remember the post from two days ago, when I was talking about needing to be more positive, especially about my career? Well somehow, in those three days I managed to land three new writing projects! These are my first paid, commercial gigs. I've had commercial gigs before, which were unpaid because I did them as a favor in order to build my portfolio. And of course I get paid for writing, but that stuff has been local magazines and online content writing. But I knew that some of the higher paying gigs were available offline, aka in the REAL WORLD. Contacting these marketing agencies, sending them my resume and writing samples was a pretty big leap for me. I stepped away from the world of low-paying, but consistent online writing jobs. I feel a lot more accomplished now that I'm working with REAL people in REAL offices. Its nice to get out of the house and coffee shops once in a while, and feel like part of the working world. Plus the people at the small marketing and ad firms that I met with have been great. I love to surround myself with creative and enthusiastic people. It is also a huge relief to take a small break from LOOKING for work and to actually be doing what I love: writing.

Now that news was exciting, but what I'm really excited about is the fact that I'm leaving on Friday for a ten day trip to California! This is huge for me, as I have never been west of Indiana. I'm definitely an East Coast girl. I'm a bit afraid that once I get to the west coast, I won't want to leave. But then again, they don't have this guy west of the Mississippi:

Yeah, I think I'll come back for him.

We are flying into Sacramento, then driving to Napa, (where we will be checking into our bed and breakfast (here's the link so you can drool over it). It was on Oprah, so it has to be spectacular, right? )
Day 2 is  a second day in Napa, touring the wineries
Day 3 and 4 are in San Francisco
Day 5 is Monterey and Carmel, plus another bed and breakfast
Day 6 Driving through Big Sur and spending the night at Pismo Beach
Day 7 Driving to LA and stopping at places on the way like Solvang, Santa Barbara, Malibu
Day 8 Spending a second day in LA, the driving to San Diego hotel in the evening
Day 9 A full day in San Diego, hopefully spending the majority of the time poolside, because we will be exhaused at that point
Day 10 back home

I am beyond excited for this. It will be amazing to spend ten days with my love, not thinking about work or his school or bills or anything else. Just driving the beautiful coast, seeing the pacific, exploring new cities, eating amazing food and drinking wine.

I asked my husband last night, "Are you ready to spend ten days with me, 24 hours a day?" The thought scares me a bit, but i'm sure we'll be ok. It will be strange though, not hanging out with another person beside each other. It will be a lot of "quality time" ha. Although we do have a friend in LA that we might hook up with.

My goal is to try to blog once a day if possible, just so I can remember what I did each day. If I don't have time though, I'm not going to feel pressured.